South Korea boasts the second highest smartphone penetration rate worldwide with 73 percent of the population owning a smartphone1. The majority of those smartphone owners watch videos or TV episodes on their devices and expect audio quality to be on par with other types of media such as HDTV. The LG U+ mobile video service ‘U-HDTV’ now provides excellent audio quality delivered by the highly efficient AAC audio codec and Fraunhofer’s Cingo mobile audio suite. The service will be available for LG U+ subscribers on Android smartphones. All new smartphones from LG U+ will come with the Cingo-enhanced 'U-HDTV' app pre-installed.

Harald Popp, head of the Audio & Multimedia Business department at Fraunhofer IIS, says “With 14 million subscribers, LG U+ is one of the largest telecommunication companies in Korea, this adoption of Fraunhofer Cingo is especially important to us. Now LG U+ users can make the most of their mobile video content with excellent sound and enjoy a complete ‘cinema-on-the-go’ experience.”

“Our subscribers love to watch premium content on their mobile devices because we care about quality,” said LG U+, Contents Business Division, Head of Division, Joon-Dong Park. “Thanks to our collaboration with the world renowned audio experts at Fraunhofer and the integration of Cingo, our service now provides an excellent audio-visual experience at any location.”

Cingo dramatically improves the entertainment experience on mobile devices. It allows for a complete immersion into a film’s sound when listening over headphones similar to the way multichannel audio systems achieve an immersive audio experience in theaters. Furthermore, Cingo delivers natural and clear sound even in the noisiest environments with better intelligibility of dialog or commentary in TV programs or movies.

At the outset, users of the ‘U-HDTV’ service will enjoy enhanced stereo sound (better sound image and improved equalization) on live-TV, TV on-demand and movie content. In the coming months LGU+ will also add true 5.1 sound with the HE-AAC Multichannel audio codec.

HE-AAC was co-developed by Fraunhofer IIS and is today’s most efficient high-quality surround and stereo audio codec. HE-AAC Multichannel is the native surround codec in all Android 4.1+ devices.

Cingo is available from Fraunhofer as a product-ready software implementation for mobile device manufacturers, chip set vendors and providers of multimedia services.

Fraunhofer IIS will demonstrate Cingo and HE-AAC on Google Nexus devices at NAB 2014 on stand SU6117.

For more information about Fraunhofer Cingo, please visit www.fraunhofer-cingo.com.

About Cingo

Fraunhofer Cingo creates an enhanced stereo and realistic surround sound impression when listening over stereo speakers or headphones. Based on the latest developments in audio technology, Fraunhofer Cingo contains a complete set of tools to deliver an exceptional level of audio quality, unmatched on mobile devices.

With the virtual surround sound mode each audio channel is presented as a virtual sound source in such a way that it is heard from a specific location and distance, for example a loudspeaker of a 5.1 surround setup in a living room. This enables the playback of stereo or surround sound over the built-in speakers or any type of headphones with an authentic surround effect.

The loudness optimization feature of Cingo delivers a natural and clear sound even in the most challenging situations. Together with the equalizing algorithm, which compensates for the common audio quality deficiencies often encountered with smartphones and tablets, Fraunhofer Cingo ensures significantly improved audio quality in any listening situation.